The death knell for petrol engines
Discussion
Thanks for all the nice comments on the 6 series, its totally off topic so won't say any more about it here, but I spent ages looking for one that wasn't rotten and found this one in London in January. It was bought new at Stephen James BMW in Enfield by a local builder who kept it in a garage for 27 years. No rust on the car anywhere, even has the original dealer plates and sticker. The car is virtually perfect inside & out, it has a extended leather (even the headlining is leather). Full BMW SH with the supplying dealer. All this for less than £15k, I really don't think these will get any cheaper so good time to buy. At some point I'll buy my own AM too, but for now I'll just have to make do with playing in our demo fleet 
V8 Vantage GT said:
Weren't they going to take away your tea kettles and toasters etc. due to their high energy use at one time? I remember hearing about this.
You are thinking of our European Union masters in Brussels.
Yes, they wanted to limit the electrical power of kettles, don't remember the toasters, but that was possible.
Someone eventually pointed out to them, that on half power, the kettle would consume electricity for double the time.
They went very quiet then. Seem to recall their next proposal, was for a law banning curved bananas.
It is still a mystery to them, why the UK has decided to leave their club.
Jon39 said:
You are thinking of our European Union masters in Brussels.
Yes, they wanted to limit the electrical power of kettles, don't remember the toasters, but that was possible.
Someone eventually pointed out to them, that on half power, the kettle would consume electricity for double the time.
They went very quiet then. Seem to recall their next proposal, was for a law banning curved bananas.
It is still a mystery to them, why the UK has decided to leave their club.
Everyone seems to be worried about charging time, range and where.
Blah blah blah.....on batteries.
My question is where are we going all the heavy rare earth minerals from to provide motors with a decent power density to weight ratio?
Rough rule of thumb (applied to windmill fallacy) is 1tonne of HREs can produce 1GW of installed power.
Ain't going to happen....l we will just be taxed off the roads instead.
Blah blah blah.....on batteries.
My question is where are we going all the heavy rare earth minerals from to provide motors with a decent power density to weight ratio?
Rough rule of thumb (applied to windmill fallacy) is 1tonne of HREs can produce 1GW of installed power.
Ain't going to happen....l we will just be taxed off the roads instead.
I honestly don't think this will happen...
Imagine the rise in costs of everything? Take Haulage for example... Lorries thundering top to bottom of the country, stopping every 2 hors to re charge? It will be carnage!! Add to that all the foreign lorries all adding to the traffic and charging points, they simply cannot just have charging points every where..... Service industry like my business, technicians on a busy day having to stop every 2-3 hours for a minimum of 45 minutes to recharge batteries... Il be passing that cost on to my customers...
This statement about banning fuel driven cars is about as realistic as finding a pot of gold at the foot of a rainbow...
Imagine the rise in costs of everything? Take Haulage for example... Lorries thundering top to bottom of the country, stopping every 2 hors to re charge? It will be carnage!! Add to that all the foreign lorries all adding to the traffic and charging points, they simply cannot just have charging points every where..... Service industry like my business, technicians on a busy day having to stop every 2-3 hours for a minimum of 45 minutes to recharge batteries... Il be passing that cost on to my customers...
This statement about banning fuel driven cars is about as realistic as finding a pot of gold at the foot of a rainbow...
Anyone who has ever driven to the Alps to ski in February half term will know that you have to plan where you are going to refuel as the French motorway service stations get completely overloaded and you can queue for a VERY long time if you get it wrong. Imagine the situation when EVERYONE has to recharge instead of refuel, rather than just the few "trailblazers" that run electric cars now. The car technology is nearly there but the infrastructure is a million miles away and will not happen overnight (particularly in the UK).
Best get the order in for one of the Electric Rapides now.
Just think, the market for classic ICE cars now is worth a fortune, so joking aside it's feasible that many years down the line our kids might be rolling out limited numbers early electric supercars from under dust covers in barns, Chasing Classic Car style. We all hail the V12 NA as the end of an era and that is true, but it's also the beginning of a new era and with that new classics will continue to be born I guess.
Food for thought at least
Just think, the market for classic ICE cars now is worth a fortune, so joking aside it's feasible that many years down the line our kids might be rolling out limited numbers early electric supercars from under dust covers in barns, Chasing Classic Car style. We all hail the V12 NA as the end of an era and that is true, but it's also the beginning of a new era and with that new classics will continue to be born I guess.
Food for thought at least
12pack said:
I understood the policy to be - no more new car sales from 2040. I expect the intention is to allow ICE cars to then slowly die off. Have not interpreted this to necessarily mean ICE cars are banned from the roads. Am I wrong?
Yep, just no new ICE cars to be sold, no further mention of dealing with existing ones.I guess the natural churn of cars will probably mean it'll take 10 years or so to clear out the DD's. However, thinking about it I bet nobody will be buying ICE cars post about 2035 anyway.
I doubt there'll be much concern for the people with classics and garage queens etc, they don't and won't even move the needle so i'm pretty sure (hope) in my lifetime it won't matter.
The answer for the battery / range / charging problem is wireless charging tech with ID recognition (for payment) built it.
Install charging lines / loops along the motorways and all A roads and then you only need to swap to battery power when you venture off piste. Effectively hardly anybody would need to charge a car at home or a remote station ever again!
Just needs a few billion £ to get the idea off the ground!
Install charging lines / loops along the motorways and all A roads and then you only need to swap to battery power when you venture off piste. Effectively hardly anybody would need to charge a car at home or a remote station ever again!
Just needs a few billion £ to get the idea off the ground!
Jon39 said:
Your words might have a more profound meaning, Jonby.
How many of us would even have any interest, in buying an Aston Martin with a Scalextric exhaust sound?
Last ever Aston Martin would be quite something.
Anyway, it was all great fun while it lasted.
NDA said:
Aston will continue to make cars for the export market - you just won't be able to drive them here.
That export market will shrink dramatically though. France has already said they will ban ICE vehicles so it's a matter of time before that's an EU wide agreement.Trump or no Trump the US will no doubt follow suit too. California is already very hot on emissions legislation. I think China too will announce a similar plan in the coming years as they realise what a mess they're in pollution wise. As car ownership in China is relatively new (on a large scale), I think it will probably become one of the first to adopt no ICE's.
Basically that will leave the rest of Asia, South America and a handful of other non-progressive places.
This is absolutely a sign of things to come globally, so there won't be a market to export ICE's too.
It's true the statement said 'new' cars from 2040, so existing cars should still be allowed on the roads. But we all know it's a great angle for the government to increase the associated road tax for the nasty polluting petrol/diesel cars. Plus, as above it maybe that the electric car by that point is more user friendly, but the infrastructure is absolutely key and I just can't see it happening. The people making these decisions couldn't organise a pi$$ up in a brewery nevermind electric cars and charging stations.
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